Talblog

Sorry New Orleans

This picture is worth the words of all the stupid newscasts on the horrible hurricane that just struck:

Happy birthday

You people suck when I ain't around... Where are all the posts? Brett? I expect more from you. Did you get a new apartment yet?

Becky and Mark are 30 yrs old... how do you like that? We are all old... who is gonna have a kid first? My money is on matt, unless Kurt and Liz have some kind of "accident".

Pong blowout

Still in it bitches... can't believe I have come this far. Funny as hell blog about it:

check it out

"I can't @#$%ing hear! I'm going insane!" J Brown's face was frozen in a mask of terror as blood ran from his jug ears. Money flying back and forth. Cats and dogs sleeping together. The homeless dancing in the streets.

chris "spooning" martin minus fruit & tofu

some previews....real photos to come. not bad for a cell phone @ night.

Wedding Bitch!

Matt and Katie are getting married in october. (For those who don't know who they are, disregard this posting)

Apparently, Matt is too shy to send out his registry information because he feels bad doing it if no one is going to their wedding. Whatever, I say we show him how pissed we are by buying them stuff they ask for:

Matt and Katie's Registry on WeddingChannel.com

Sorry Matt - I know you didn't want me to post this because you are too "shy" or "nice" or something. Actually, I have no idea why... I wish I had this talblog thing when I got married.

Ping Pong MAYHEM

OH GOD, how nerdy can I be? I don't know... But I have a weblog and am in a company ping pong tournament... Pretty F'n Nerdy if you ask me (as my collar pops). Who the fuck cares, I am almost thirty. Check the results, as posted by our "Rally Monkey"

Game 2:

Agent J (Jean/Jeremie) vs. The Sody-Pop Gang (Steve G/J Brown)

I think we all saw this coming. The Sody-Pop Gang was like Klaus Kinkski: too unstable to survive. The volatile mixture of Steve "Iceman" Gerardin and The Ritalin Kid just had to implode and today was the day. The only surprise, really, was that they collapsed before the game even started! They looked like the Keystone Kops during the service rally. Perhaps there were too many cocktails at lunch, but the boys looked disoriented and out of their element. They lost the rally and quickly imploded to fall behind 2-7. Things improved slightly, but by the time J Brown lasered a slam past Agent J at eye level, it was all over but for the final tally. Dovi insisted that a comeback was in the works (due mostly to his ill-advised wager with Kane), but even he knew that he was grasping at straws as a single tear slid down his cheek. Ultimately, the game wasn't as close as the score would indicate.

Agent J over The Sody-Pop Gang
21-13

-Owned.

all that noise & all that sound

COLDPLAY...after two years of anxious, patient waiting, i got to see coldplay again. live, in concert. it was so fucking amazing.

i've been a hardcore fan since 2000, basically senior year of college. i've listened to each album about 4,000 times and been to four concerts, which includes flying 2,000 miles to see them at Red Rocks, in 2003. they've played a few teaser shows throughtout california this year, however i've missed each one due to some stupid setback and been royally pissed each time.

almost three months ago, their new album X&Y came out and concert tix went on sale...immediately i snatched up the album and two lawn tix, for their sunday show in Irvine at Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre. it's not exactly close to Venice, but fuck that, it's Coldplay. I LOVE YOU CHRIS MARTIN!!!!!!!!!!

they had two shows this weekend, sat & sun. Mark (from the blog) was able to grab four tix, two for him and his lady and two for rocco. since his were actually in the ampitheatre seats, i opted to be rocco's guest and gave my tix to two close friends.

after months of waiting and anticipation, the magical weekend was before me. i was surprisingly un-excited and spent the early half of sunday frying myself to a crisp at santa monica beach. granted i didn't realize i was burnt til rushing around for the concert....un-pleasant.

i packed some snacks and a cooler full of coors light, rounded up the ladies and we zoomed too anaheim in the civic. clearly we would be tailgaiting prior to showtime, i can't remember a concert where i haven't thrown back a few brews before rocking out. well Irvine said "fuck you missy". yeah. we cracked open our 24 ouncers, poured them into our handy red solo cups right as the concert rent-a-cops strolled up and announced they were ready to arrest us for open container laws. "uh, what? that's absurd. surely you're joking." they were not.

so we had to pour it all out, b/c southern california needs to suck a dick. highly aggravated, but not quite deterred, bess, lara & i met up with rocco, mark and kristen to enter the magic that is verizon wireless ampitheatre. in all reality it's actually a crappo venue. #1. no tailgaiting. #2. cops everywhere. #3. i pounded a beer anyway, then ditched the can prior to entry. #4. everyone has to climb ONE huge fuckin hill to get in. they clearly don't believe in spreading out the entrances.

geniusly, i went with bess/lara to scout out a great lawn spot, which unfortunately doesn't exist since the lawn area was SO DAMN SMALL. well thank the Lord in heaven, that all changed when we left our blanky to get three cups of the sacred sacrament. lara and i walked toward the beer station when suddenly lara thought she was getting propositioned to buy drugs....well turns out "mr. cool" wasn't sellin her any white lines, just FREE WRIST BANDS FOR THE PIT!!!!!!!!. skeptically, yet immediately, we accept wristbands and interrogate him to ensure this isn't a sick joke. i've had friends who were lucky enough to get free upgrades, but how does this happen to regular people?!?! WHO CARES! with robin's egg-blue wrist bands we head to the land of the blessed....FRONT FUCKING ROW. free g.d. upgrade for my most favorite band ever -- HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY MISSY!!!!

it was un-fucking-believable.

finally, others could enjoy coldplay as i've always seen them. chris, a lyrical genius and incredibly talented musician, surrounded by three equally amazing bandmates. it was phenomenal. like a total, complete, raging idiot, i had loaned my digi camera to a coworker this weekend....BUT knew lara would have hers. thank GOD she did. never in a million years would i have guessed we'd be front row. i am still a shit though b/c i basically high-jacked her digi-elph and made her delete photos of her grandmother & family so that i could have "just one more" close-up photo of the band. believe me, they're worth it!

i can't wait to go download all of them tomorrow night. i took FANTASTIC video footage of four or five songs..all of which will be too big for the blog, but maybe jermie can teach me how to link them. coldplay is all about light. they use light & colors fantastically within all of their sets, which works so well visually... sometimes looks great on camera. sometimes not.

ahh point being. it took us forever to get home from Irvine, but i could care less, b/c it was such a great concert. there are more stories with this, but don't want to make it any longer...... OH RIGHT and, make trade fair, MTF. =)

San Francisco Pisses Me Off

First:

It's the damn fog It is ridiculous this year. Apparently on wednesday it was colder than anchorage alaska. Fuck.

Second: We are trying to find an apartment right now. I am so sick of apartments. I want to buy a house. But WAIT, what is the median fucking home price around here? OH, I don't know, about SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. I went to art school god dammit, I don't make that kind of coin.

So when you give up on buying a house, you realize that all the apartments suck in this town... Mostly because I am tired of living in an apartment. I want a yard. I want a yard and a dog. I want a yard and a dog and a barbeque and a dishwasher! I demand it! I don't want to pay 2000 a month for a victorian that I don't own. I am sick of your stinking narrow halls and crappy plumbing. Fuck you VICTORIAN!

This comes from the fact that becky and I have been apartment hunting for the past month or so. But, since house prices are so high, good apartments are quite tough to come by. When everyone my age can't afford a house, they either get a loan they can't afford to buy one, or spend their disposable income on a better apartment and wait. TRUST ME, there are a lot of people my age in this freaking city.

Ah what to do, what to do. Just a friday morning rant.

Another good blog

This guy writes pretty dam well. Says it like it is. Not to bring up any politcal issues here but I found this article particularly good. Just figured I'd share. Tony Pierce's Blog

Life Drawing Last Night

Becky and I went to an open life drawing studio in the Mission district of SF for the first time in years last night. It was great - felt like a workout for my brain. It is amazing how fast a one minute pose goes by... just eough time to make a few marks - not enough time to think about how much you are sucking.

I think we are going to go way more often, I will have to start posting some of the work for feedback - though you won't know what the model looked like. Awesome.

Algonquin Park

Just spent the week in Algonquin park. Pics to come.
We went on a Wolf howl. This is how it happens. The Park staff go out the night before and try to locate a pack (or two) by driving the highway and howling every so 5Kms or so. (The highway through the park is like 50km long)
They post the howl time on all the camp grounds and everyone meets at the visitors theatre. After a presentation they tell every one to be quiet when you get to the location and listen while one of the Staff howls. We all hop in our cars and in single file drive the highway to the location. The staffs are there to turn half the cars around so we are on both sides of the highway.
This is the thing. There were 2500 people and 500 cars!
You don’t realize how freaky it is for this many people to be standing beside there cars in pitch darkness and not making a sound! Before they close the highway for 20mins or so, they let a couple of cars through and with the headlights you can see the thousands of people standing quiet waiting beside there vehicles. Like Cose Encounters before the Helicopters come.
Anyway, Ranger boy howls and about 5 seconds later you hear the pups waiting for Mom and Dad to bring home some grub.
Listen.
Howl

Stream of conciousness summer

went to Chicago for work, went to Pittsburgh for an AIGA retreat, went to the Jersey shore over the 4th, got a kick-ass air-brushed t-shirt for Sonya, saw some great fireworks on the beach where cops got boo-ed for trying to stop them, got bronchitis,

took the cat to the vet to get his teeth cleaned, dreaded coming home to cat puke daily for about a week (damn hair balls!), tried to force feed the cat antibiotics for weeks on end, wondered which of our dying cars was most drivable on any given day, paid for repairs on said cars, refused to pay $1200 to fix the AC on my dying car in the middle of July in GA, sweated my ass off in said car, got even more involved with the AIGA Atlanta chapter, hung out with friends in Atlanta, hung out with friends in Athens, occasionally visited family in Athens, randomly ran into co-workers socially, saw a cool rock poster show a a local design museum no one knew existed, got caught in "pop-up" thunder storms on the ride home from work, started the house-hunting process, had the hard drive on my computer at work go out, tried to keep our tiny one bedroom apartment organized, visited the new Ikea (which seemed wrong somehow, aren't we at WhiteMarsh?), tried not to buy anything since we are planning on moving, enjoyed one too many birthday cakes at work, tried to plan our trip to the west coast for my brother's wedding, enjoyed frosty beverages from QT, watched as gas prices keep rising, considered the virtues of hybrid cars, and turned 29 (and don't really care)

Where the hell is everyone

Fine then, I am going to post the lyrics for the Arnocorps song "Total Recall"

My name is not Quaid!

What the fuck did I do wrong?
Suddenly I see I don't belong
Ask about the future, don't know the past
The thoughts in my mind don't seem to last!

My whole life is just a dream
Now I know what I could've been
I want to climb the mountains of Mars
With wholesale memories, I'm in charge!

Get your ass! Get your ass to Mars!
Get your ass! Get your ass to Mars!

The blood on my hands is not a delusion
The corpse of my wife adds confusion
Consider this a final divorce
When I'm on Mars I'll find the source!

Last Resort is where I'll go
For three-tittied ladies, don't you know
I want to climb the mountains of Mars
Wholesale memories! I'm in charge!

(chorus)

You idiot! You blew my cover! They'll kill us all!

Mutated head protrudes from a belly
Speaking from lips that look like jelly
Five kids to feed, that's what I hear
From Benny the man who got me here
They're all traitors, none I can trust
Screw you benny! That's a must
I want to climb the mountains of Mars
Wholesale memories! I'm in charge! Go!

Go!!! Benny! Here! Screeeewww yoooou!

See you at the party, Richter!

www.arnocorps.com

Tippett Studio Ping Pong Blowout

Yeah, so I am in this, and they actually set up a blog for it.. it is fucking hilarity. I can't believe how much effort these guys have put into it. I think there is an article regarding me testifying to congress for roid use somewhere down the page. Check the comments to see how I handled the Congressional inquiry.

pongblowout link

Safari Pictures

Becky and I went to this place called "Safari West" this weekend, in which you get into old school 'nam era jeeps and ride around lookin' at animals. Mostly it was just a lot of different kinds of antelopes (becaust they can't let it get too while out there), but there were some other pretty great animals we got to check out

Click for pics:

cute as a possum

this is a new phrase i might have to start using. this afternoon i was about to go on a walk to the beach when i noticed that the wooden gate linking my apt and the neighbor's had been left open. just as i contemplated wiping away the spider webs to close it, i spotted the CUTEST pair of eyeballs staring back at me. it was a baby, wobbly possum. *see photos*.

i slowly crept away to retrieve my camera and luckily his curiousity kept him there for a kodak moment. the 2nd cutest part was that i noticed manolo, the neighbor's cat, just hanging out in the background watching the possum sniff around, i really hope he doesn't eat him...

i know possums can carry disease and all that, but it wasnt foaming at the mouth or anything...who knew LA had wildlife?!? i've seen about 8 squirrels since i've lived here (yes i counted)... it also reminded me of the time i saw a huge ass racoon run into the bushes outside becky n jeremie's old place. pretty crazy. check him out....

i want to hug him n kiss him n squeeze him n love him forever and ever...

Do you remember THIS?

Something to make you piss yourself with laughter on a thursday evening, remember this site? REAL ULTIMATE POWER

(if you don't remember this from a few years ago, you have to go), Quote:

Testimonial:

Ninjas can kill anyone they want! Ninjas cut off heads ALL the time and don't even think twice about it. These guys are so crazy and awesome that they flip out ALL the time. I heard that there was this ninja who was eating at a diner. And when some dude dropped a spoon the ninja killed the whole town. My friend Mark said that he saw a ninja totally uppercut some kid just because the kid opened a window.

AYE! Were going to this!

I demand it.

Castro theatre showing movies in 70mm format.

I say we go to either Apocalypse Now, Ghostbusters, Dragonslayer, and or Edward Skizzzorhands. Any of the last 3 would be awesome.

Make me happy.

Shit, I'll go alone if i have to.

Bunny Suicides

I gotta kick outta these. Just some site with Bunny's attempts at suicide. Click me